New York Times + L.A. Times = Treason Charges

First off, congratulations are in order for Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) for being the first Congressman to explicitly call for prosecution of the New York Times under applicable statutes. Maybe the apologists and CYA crowd supporting these two bird cage liner papers could be troubled to read the following section of the U.S. Code, 18 U.S.C. § 798(a)(3) (Hat Tip to the Weekly Standard for pointing this out):

"Whoever knowingly and willfully communicates, furnishes, transmits, or otherwise makes available to an unauthorized person, or publishes, or uses in any manner prejudicial to the safety or interest of the United States or for the benefit of any foreign government to the detriment of the United States any classified information . . . concerning the communication intelligence activities of the United States . . . shall be fined not more than $10,000 or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both [emphasis added]."

In case you haven't heard, for at least the third time since 9/11, the New York Times has managed to give our terrorist enemies around the world something more valuable than the America-hating propaganda they already provide...free intelligence. Now added to the entirely legal data-mining operations performed by the government to track terrorists' phone calls and internet usage and the disclosure that our intelligence community had traced a particular kind of cell phone via satellite being used by top AQ leaders, including bin Laden himself, we now have a third U.S. intelligence operation blown by the MSM. This time, the Treasury Department was using computer monitoring to track known and/or suspected terrorist money movements overseas. This program led to the capture of the one of the world's most dangerous Islamic terrorists, Hambali, who was responsible for the Bali nightclub bombing that killed nearly 200 innocent civilians in Indonesia.

The tips and intelligence from this program will surely dry up now that it has been shouted from the rooftops in the drive-by media. I don't care if caring and being outraged about this stuff makes me a dork because our survival as a nation means more to me than Brangelina's spawn or Ms. Federline's doomed marriage...it is too important not to care, not to shine sunlight on these cockroaches. It heartens me greatly to know that people (myself included) are still capable of outrage at dangerous loose lips that could cost American lives. These treasonous crapweasels have crossed over from annoying sideshow to dangerous national security liability. After sending a strongly worded letter to the Dept. of Justice (gotta be heard even if it bears no fruit right away), I came across a perfect zinging for the terrorist-enabling Fifth Column in our midst, written to the NYT by a reader of Michelle Malkin's, which is so good I had to repost it in its entirety here. Rope, tree, journalist, some assembly required.

"As I'm certain you've already discerned, the vast majority of Americans are not terrified of their government leaders in this time of war; yet they are most certainly furious, and yes, terrified, at the MSM's willingness to endlessly betray the best interests of our nation's security. I have chafed and groaned at each and every disclosure of vital national secrets and programs; at the inevitable harm they will cause our nation; and at the vacuous grounds on which your organizations assert the right to betray our nation. No more.

Our nation has preserved itself and the entire free world from seemingly innumerable despicable tyrannies bent on global domination over the course of her existence. In none of those ultimately successful struggles has America suffered the deliberate discord and demoralization of an unfettered fifth column gnawing at her resolve, and, indeed, her very foundations. Vietnam notwithstanding, the degree of aid and comfort, of crucial and actionable intelligence that is being provided to our current enemies, has no precedent. Only in the few spectacular cases of individual spies have we seen this level of willingness to compromise our intelligence and defense capabilities by American citizens.

This treasonous behavior is beyond reprehensible. Were your organizations to sport newly grown beards and fly the standards of the innumerable terrorist organizations arrayed against us upon your rooftops, you could no more demonstrate your support for our enemies and your disdain for our nation than you have with these endless publications of state-secrets.

You have shown no light of truth upon a travesty or an injustice; you have not bravely spoken truth to power; you have simply acted upon an irrational hatred of your own country and contempt for the current administration in a time that represents the greatest vulnerability our nation has ever faced; for your own egos and will to power. It is disgraceful, disgusting, and completely unacceptable.

The program that you just blew was entirely legal, unopposed by its Congressional overseers, outside of American territory, targeted very few Americans, and was both vital and effective in our efforts to prosecute the war against the Jihadis. Simply watching the movement of money with the hopes of spotting terrorist funds and their abettors is not a threat to Americans. It is a threat to our enemies, and you have aided only them by your actions.

Our nation is a nation of laws. We have chosen the leaders who will act on and under those laws. They have done so with an amazing degree of conciliatory concern for the sensitivities of those that pretend to have reason to suspect the benign intentions of our executive branch. It is not your right to take their every action and decision directly to the American populace for the purposes of second-guessing and ankle-biting. You may express the great difficulty that you suffered in deciding whether to expose this latest program, but the truth is that you all glory in your foolish notion that you are a legitimate branch of our government charged with putting even potentially harmful information in the hands of the citizens. The decision was not yours to make. This administration has been too soft, too kind, too timid in dealing with the likes of the NY and LA times and their treasonous revelations. You have broken the law. You have broken faith with America; her values, her well-being. Your cheering section is much smaller and much less wise than you seem to believe. You need to start looking beyond your self-constructed echo-chambers and see what Americans really think of treason.

It is time that Americans refuse to accept the Administration's molly-coddling of traitorous and treacherous elitists bent on self-aggrandizement and political tomfoolery at the expense of our security. From this point forward I will demand that the Administration prosecute the organizations that engage in such acts of sedition and espionage. I will encourage everyone I can in every way I can. If reporters will not reveal their sources in the face of a criminal investigation, then they must be jailed, and every layer of editorial and managerial responsibility above them as well, until we have eliminated the leakers, or, if need be, paralyzed their means of disseminating their seditious wares by imprisoning the entire lot of you.

Valerie Plame's identity means nothing to anyone, and should legions of such once faceless nobodies be revealed to be regular commuters to Langley, our nation will be no less secure. Yet you undermine the very means of detecting the dots that we desperately must connect to preserve the fabric of our nation and the lives of her citizens: and you do not see the hypocrisy or irony of it. Hypocrisy is certainly not a crime. What you have done, repeatedly, and continue to do, IS a crime. It must not be allowed to continue, or go unpunished. I suggest you open your phonebooks to the legal pages: you're gonna be real busy soon."